Miningweekly.com
written by Loni Prinsloo

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - Gold-mining junior Great Basin Gold said on Monday that its Burnstone project in South Africa's Mpumalanga province would be connected to the national electricity grid by August 8.

State-owned power utility Eskom initially committed to have power delivered to the site by the end of June, however, internal delays at the utility postponed the date by about two weeks, with a resultant delay in the start-up of the plant at the mine.

Great Basin president and CEO Ferdi Dippenaar said that the power supply from Eskom was a significant step towards the commissioning of the Burnstone metallurgical plant.

"Fortunately, the delay in commissioning the mill is only limited to two weeks, and is not expected to significantly impact on the planned ore throughput," he added.

Dippenaar pointed out that the main distribution substation at the Burnstone site was completed and that the receiving infrastructure being part of the Eskom line project, was ready to receive electrical power.

Power supply to the Burnstone mine was enabled through the execution of a two-phase project, with phase one including the delivery of a single line, designed to carry the full demand of 51 MVA, scaled up from 21 MVA initially, and building up to the full requirement as production builds up.

Phase two included the construction of a second, identical, line with the aim of mitigating the risk of power outages to the mine and region. The second line would not increase the capacity of the supply, but was aimed at security of supply, commensurate with Eskom's risk and safety policies.

Dippenaar said that the metallurgical plant construction project had made rapid progress against an "aggressive" 15-month delivery time line, with the heavy civil construction largely completed, construction of the different buildings far advanced, and the off-site assembled components being delivered and installed.

Further, the company said that good progress had been made on the mill during June.

"The ball and semiautogenous grinding mill shells and heads have been mounted in position, the mill motors have been installed and general alignment and installation procedures completed. Currently, the lubrication systems and mill liners are being installed."

Meanwhile, Great Basin reported that the tailings facility project was progressing well, with phase one having been completed and ready to receive tailings from the plant. A water storage and supply dam had been activated with surplus underground water being pumped into the dam and stored in it. Upon commissioning, the raw water storage and thickener tanks in the metallurgical plant would be filled as well.

The sinking phase of the Burnstone vertical shaft was completed in the past two months and Dippenaar said that the company expected the equipping of the shaft to be completed in August.

He reported that to date, about 126 000 t of ore had been accumulated on stockpiles at the mine and would be used at the commissioning of the operation.